Sainsbury's in 'bully' row

SUPERMARKET giant Sainsbury's was today accused of bullying its small suppliers in an astonishing war of words that has broken out between its boss and the chief executive of a Knutsford-based business pressure group.

SUPERMARKET giant Sainsbury's was today accused of bullying its small suppliers in an astonishing war of words that has broken out between its boss and the chief executive of a Knutsford-based business pressure group.

The supermarket giant's chief executive Justin King has been outraged by comments made by Nick Goulding, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business, that Sainsbury's tried to "rip up" existing contracts with hundreds of suppliers, and impose onerous non-negotiable new payment terms on them.

Mr King has hit back at the allegations, saying they are "provocative and untrue" and demanding that the attacks should cease.

Now the FPB, which represents 25,000 UK-based businesses, claims that Sainsbury's is attempting to intimidate it into silence.

The row erupted when Mr Goulding made his comments after an article was published in the trade magazine, The Grocer, which said Sainsbury's had provoked a storm of controversy by writing to 2,000 suppliers and informing them that their invoices would be paid up to four weeks later than usual.

In a letter to Mr Goulding, Mr King refutes any suggestion that contracts were ripped up, saying it had reached agreement with the vast majority of its thousands of suppliers over rationalisation of its payment terms.

"We entirely refute your provocative allegation that we have `ripped up contracts with suppliers,' we have done no such thing.....your letter is a clear misrepresentation of the facts and we now insist that you cease to make this kind of misleading and untrue statement about Sainsbury's," Mr King wrote.

But today Mr Goulding was standing by his comments. He says the letter was bullying in tone and was followed by a phone call to the FPB office to ask if the lobby group would confirm it would not repeat such statements.

"We have a simple message for Mr King. Your bully boy tactics will not work on us. The FPB will fight for the smaller businesses to ensure they are treated justly and fairly," said Mr Goulding.